That said, how about another Great Monday Give? Tomi Ungerer's classic Crictor? All you have to do to win an awesome pre-loved paperback copy of this book is comment on this post before July 15, Sunday at 11:59 PM CT. A winner will be selected at random and announced the following morning.

41 comments:

I used to love thumbing through my parents' giant doorstop of a Tomi Ungerer book, but unfortunately, didn't realize he wrote children's books until starting my career selling books to kids! Love him!!!

I've read all those books to him, but since he's been reading on his own, I can't find the first book on our shelves. I've been waiting to run into another copy thrifting. Thanks for the reminder! Congrats on winning BTW!

What about Mudpuddle Farm stories? Six stories, you can get them all in one book and they were a great inbetweeny book in our house, just before Beast Quest(very samey but still, books all the same) and after the Usbourne Young Reading hardbacks. (they are great, if he's into mythological stuff,Ulysses, Perseus and the Gorgon etc.) And you probably know Geronimo Stilton?

So sentimental about Crictor, loved seeing it on my screen this morning. That age is such a tough one to keep supplied with great pre-middle readers...as a librarian at a bilingual school I have to ask how challenging it is or isn't to have him read in Spanish or English. I try to help a lot of parents with their concerns in this area and am always looking for new perspectives, especially from someone who clearly loves books too.

This is just a regular comment, not a giveaway comment (we read that book from the library! It's lovely.) --

we just read 'George's Marvelous Medicine' by Dahl and oh the funny. Have you guys read that one? And we're reading Dr. Doolittle together. Has he read Pippi? Would he be interested do you think? I just heard about the Lighthouse Family book series by Cynthia Rylant -- a friend said she read the books to her son when he was 6. Not sure if it's read-on-your-own-able or be -read-to type of thing.

Crictor was my most favorite book when I was in first grade in the he US! I named my first goldfish Crictor I,followed by Crictor II andf finally Crictor III. Little did I know one day I would live with my children France, whcih is Tomi Ungerer's homelad as well. This book is never been as popular here as his other works. I have a Germa copy but would love to have an America edition.Jennifer in France

Make!Do!.... If you mean reading both? As he is in immersion, they ask us to not have them read in English. I stopped having him read in English at the first of the year because I could see in the beginning that it was affecting his reading negatively. But after about half a year in immersion, the problems dual language caused had vanished. sure, if he would read for pleasure in spanish, i would have him reading only spanish, but he's not there yet. he only reads spanish if I ask him to.... so he does the minimum school asks... 15 minutes a day. beyond that now, I let him read however long he wants to english.

The Sideways stories books by Sachar are delightful. And addictive; they're a collection of 6 page stories, so why not read just one more?

The Secret of Droon books are kinda dumb, but there are a whole lotta them. My son liked them for the fantasy aspect. After a while he wasn't interested in the Marvin Redpost series (also Sachar), I think for the lack thereof.

The Geronimo Stilton series is quite interesting typographically, and chock full o' pictures.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and How to Train Your Dragon series should keep him busy a while.

This year my class loved the Mercy Watson series, which has fun full color pictures. Zita the Spacegirl is a great comic (also Mal and Chad, Daniel Boom: Loud Boy, and Amulet). They were also obsessed by DC Super-Pets series. They are short chapter books, with the pets of DC superheroes.

We have "My Dad's a Birdman" and just borrowed "The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon" from our library. They aren't too wordy (especially Birdman) and have the fantastic illustrations of Polly Dunbar, but not sure as we are no where near starting to read at this house...

We have Crictor in our collection, thanks to your review, and love it!

Have you read the Arabel and Mortimer books by Joan Aiken yet? Mortimer is a crow with a very distinctive personality and an insatiable appetite. He manages to create mayhem pretty much wherever he goes. Very fun, and each title has 4 or so short Mortimer stories in it. Also love the George Selden books in the Cricket in Times Square series.

Oh oh, what about the old "Something Queer" book series? Written by Elizabeth Levy, ill. by the wonderful Mordecai Gerstein. Lots to look at in the schematic-style pictures, but good mystery reading too.

My son is also 7. He's too loves graphic novels and Calvin and Hobbes but reads a range of things. Four of our favorites: Binky the Space Cat books, Lenore Look's books about Alvin Ho and Ruby Lu, the Bad Kitty books by Nick Bruel, and the Humphrey books by Betty Birney. The first three are graphic novels/graphic novelish, and the last is just a good series that he and I both like.